


Heroes & Villains

by Pollydoodles



Series: A Small Slice of Life [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 21:43:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6095002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollydoodles/pseuds/Pollydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy was lying, comfortably half in and half out of sleep, her head cradled on Bucky’s lap and his careful fingers petting through her hair, when he said it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroes & Villains

Darcy was lying, comfortably half in and half out of sleep, her head cradled on Bucky’s lap and his careful fingers petting through her hair, when he said it. 

Or, to be more accurate, when he asked it. 

“Am I the bad guy?”

Darcy opened one eye, and squinted up at him. A serious face looked back at her. 

“What do you mean, Buck?” She asked, carefully. 

He looked a little lost as he pondered her question, and she could almost see the storm clouds gathering behind his eyes, the blue darkening as he continued staring down at her. His fingers were still absent-mindedly tangling in her curls and she fought to keep her mind on the situation at hand. 

“In the film,” He started, then sucked his lower lip thoughtfully. Darcy, overwhelmed by the look in his eyes and forgetting herself slightly, reached up and traced the line of his mouth, resting her soft hand against his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned his face into her touch before continuing. She could feel the gentle brush of his lashes against her skin as his eyes flickered shut briefly. 

“In all the films,” he said, quietly. “There’s a good guy, and a bad guy.”

“That’s often the way, yeah.” Darcy said, mirroring his cautious tone.

“And- and-“ He looked troubled. “Steve says- that the Avengers are the good guys.” His eyebrow cocked at her, quizzically, as if waiting for her to challenge that assertion. 

“Mmmmhmmm.” Darcy nodded, keeping her face neutral and starting to see where this was going. 

“And I’m…” He trailed off. Darcy waited on him to finish, thinking it was important for him to get his words out without being interrupted, however much it made her itch to keep quiet. He lowered his eyes away from hers. “Not an Avenger.” She could see the muscle clench slightly in his jaw as he finished speaking, looking as though he had a world of words inside his head and no clue how to let them loose. 

“You could be.” She said, arching her neck into his hard thigh, getting herself a better angle to look up at him. His eyes were still looking anywhere but at hers, but he brushed away an errant curl from her forehead. “Buck- you could be. If you wanted it.”

He huffed slightly, and she pushed herself up onto her elbows and then swung herself around with a total lack of grace, catching his knee awkwardly with one foot and narrowly missing catching him in the face with the other. Bucky dodged her movements without even glancing at her properly and for one brief moment she allowed herself to consider how hot that was. 

Get a grip, Darce. The man’s troubled, he hardly needs you perving on his reflexes.

She somehow worked her way onto her knees next to him and leaning forwarding she placed two gentle fingertips under his chin and coaxed his face upwards. He moved willingly with her touch, but would not have made the move himself. Deep blue eyes that threatened to turn glassy bored back at her, and Darcy so desperately wanted to throw her arms around him and hug him tight, let him know he could count on her, always. 

But Bucky took contact on his own terms. He regularly sat behind her, carefully brushing her hair out, or rested a loose hand on her hip. He would crawl into her bed, slip under the covers and eventually end up wrapped up in her – but it had to be his choice. Darcy was okay with that – Bucky needed to know that he was in control of who touched him, how much and for how long. It was important to him – and her – that he retained that control. 

Didn’t make it any less difficult to hold back, though. 

“Bucky.” She breathed, before continuing in a stronger tone. “You can be an Avenger if you want to, but that’s not what makes a good man.” Bucky continued to look doubtful. “Hey, I’m not an Avenger. You think I’m a bad guy?”

Bucky jerked his head up and his metal hand closed against her thigh, a little tighter than was completely comfortable for Darcy but she didn’t complain. “No.” He ground out, and the metal fingers of his left hand clenched involuntarily as he spoke. 

“So you know it’s not the only way to judge someone’s goodness.” She said firmly. “People don’t have to be Avengers to be good, and you know what? Just being an Avenger doesn’t make you a good guy.” 

“Steve is.”

Darcy let a small smile crook her lips before she answered. “Steve was always a good man. Always will be. Doesn’t matter what else he is. You remember that, right?”

Bucky’s gaze flickered, and she knew it meant he was dragging through old memories. She waited, letting her fingers drop from his chin but letting them graze lightly over his bare arm. He would allow her that much, she knew. After what felt like an age, he looked back to her and she could see her own smile mirrored back at her. 

“Yeah.” He said shyly. 

“What- what do you remember, Bucky?” Darcy asked hesitantly. Bucky digging through the broken pieces and shards of memory in his mind could be hit and miss, but the smile encouraged her. 

“Fighting.” He said instantly, and she had to laugh at that. Encouraged by her honest laughter, he continued, the words spilling from his mouth and tumbling over each other in his haste to get them out into the world. “Punches, and trash cans. And, and ALLEYS.” He got louder as he spoke and she made a shushing motion with her fingertip to her lips, but only gently, not wanting to stop his flow entirely. 

He grinned then, a genuine wide beaming smile that opened his whole face and Darcy, still nestled into him and her legs tucked under her, could almost see the memories played out over his features like some drive-in movie. 

“Steve hit Jimmy Reeves.” Bucky said slowly, his eyes now focused – looking at her but not seeing her. “Socked him right in the jaw.” He looked at her properly then, and she grinned back at him. 

“Why did he do that, Buck?” She asked, thrilled to see him recounting so much in one go. Bucky hesitated, and his eyebrows knit together as he worked that one over carefully. His lips moved, silently sounding out words as he thought it through and dug harder through the shoebox of shattered memories buried in his head. 

“He said…” He murmured, still thinking and his voice barely above a rasp as he tried to figure out the next steps in the story. “He said that Becky Garraghan oughta be his girl, but she didn’t wanna be.” Darcy bit her lip to hold back a gasp at hearing Bucky’s natural Brooklyn accent start to surface as he lost himself in the past. 

“So Steve hit him?”

“Yah.” Bucky grinned and a wickedly hard look passed across his eyes before he continued. “Then with a trash can lid, to make sure.” Darcy fell apart in peels of laughter and Bucky let out a rumbling laugh along with her. She laughed so hard that she started to fall backwards, and he reached out an arm, snaking it around her waist, to try and prevent her from going over. 

It didn’t work. 

Darcy ended up on her back on the couch, having pulled Bucky along with her, his chest flush to her own and unable to stop from giggling. She’d seen pictures of Steve before the procedure – almost every kid in America had, it was history for god’s sakes – and the idea of him beating up some kid with a trash can lid was hilarious. 

Bucky was laughing along with her, although mainly now because she’d lost it so badly rather than his memories of Steve. She could feel their stomachs brush together as the movement made both her shirt and his ride up slightly. She took deep breaths and tried to calm herself, regain control, chest rising and falling against Bucky’s. 

Finally calm, she looked up into his eyes and smiled, reaching up tentatively to brush an unruly section of hair away from his brilliant blue eyes. He closed them and hummed against her touch, dropping his head slightly until his forehead was resting against hers. She left him do it, then whispered into his ear. 

“You’re not the bad guy, Buck. Trust me.”


End file.
